The present invention relates to apparatus, systems and methods for conveying quantities of loose material to a remote location.
Loose material, such as excavation dirt, soil mixtures, grains, bark, gravel and mulch, are often transported between a storage location, a truck or other transport device, and/or a work site using heavy equipment such as front loaders and dump trucks. Heavy equipment, however, typically must be transported to and from a location on a road, and requires a relatively flat surface on which to operate. Where no road exists, where there is otherwise restricted access, or where the terrain is not suitable for operating heavy equipment, workers often resort to using shovels and wheelbarrows for moving loose material. For obvious reasons, shovels and wheelbarrows are not an optimal means for conveying large quantities of loose material, even over short distances.
Systems incorporating conveyor belts or fans have been developed to convey loose material from a work site or truck to a remote road or other area. Two systems that incorporate fans can be seen at U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,804 to Wysong et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,237 to Rexius.
Conveyor belts can be useful in situations where a large amount of loose material must be conveyed over a long distance, even over steep or uneven terrain. Conveyor belts, however, are bulky, complicated and difficult to set up. Consequently, conveyor belts may not be economical for small jobs or other short-term work.
As illustrated in the above-referenced patents, known blower systems can be extremely large and cumbersome. Accordingly, these systems require road access similar to heavy equipment. In addition, because blower systems use low pressure air to convey the loose material, the blower systems typically can only convey material over short distances (i.e., 250 ft. or less).
With respect to one particular application, i.e., erosion control on a hillside, the above methods prove to be particularly unsuited. Because erosion control problems are most commonly found on steep hillsides, often none of the heavy equipment or truck mounted equipment can get close to the work area. Belt conveyors and wheelbarrows can be used to convey the loose material to the site, but depositing the material in an effective manner is arduous work. The worker depositing the materials from the wheelbarrow or from the pile at the end of the belt conveyor must shovel the material into the proper location and compact the material to prevent it from eroding itself.
Similarly, blowers are ineffective at properly depositing the loose materials due to the low pressure air used to convey the material. The material exiting the distal end of the blower hose merely falls against the hillside. Consequently, after depositing the material with the blower hose, the worker must still manually compact the material against the hillside.
The present invention relates to apparatus, systems and methods for conveying loose material between two locations, such as a truck or trailer and either a work site or a storage location. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a hollow conduit made from a rigid material and having a fixed size and shape, and a mechanical conveyor having a plurality of spaced apart, interconnected conveyor elements that entrap the loose material and move it along a material path. The hollow conduit extends along a portion of the material path, and the conveyor elementsxe2x80x94and with them the loose materialxe2x80x94pass through the conduit. At a delivery location along the length of the conduit, a first hole through the wall of the conduit is adapted to communicate with a source of high pressure air, and a second opening through the wall of the conduit is sized and shaped to allow the loose material in a fluent state to pass therethrough. When the mechanical conveyor moves loose material to the delivery location, the high pressure air entering the conduit through the first opening fluidizes the loose material and carries it out the second opening. The second opening is adapted to be connected to a hose for carrying the fluidized loose material to a remote location at a high rate of speed. As the mechanical conveyor continues to transport loose material through the conduit, the loose material continues to be fluidized and transported along the hose to the remote location.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical conveyor and conduit described above are incorporated into a system comprising a hopper. The mechanical conveyor communicates with the hopper to convey large quantities of loose material to the conduit for substantially constant delivery to the remote location.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the hopper, mechanical conveyor and conduit described above are fixedly coupled to a first frame assembly. The first frame assembly is then movably coupled to a second frame assembly. The second frame assembly can be configured for transport, such as on a truck or trailer. The first frame assembly moves with respect to the second frame assembly between a first position for non-use and/or transport, and a second position for operation.